Finding Safety: Trauma and the Body
What is trauma? When your physiology is stuck, you are stuck. Trauma can be defined as being stuck in protective reflexes. Dissociation is a protective reflex most people are unaware of. In my experience, most people dissociate most of the time. Connecting to your body can be really hard and confusing. But, the evidence is clear, we can learn to feel safe, we can learn to be more embodied.
Steve Haines shares how embodiment is a central tool that can be trained to heal pain, anxiety and trauma.
In This Session:
Trauma is anything that overwhelms but understanding the protective reflexes of ‘fight-or-flight’ or ‘freeze’ we get stuck in is clinical gold dust and explains many distressing conditions
Dissociation (‘freeze’) is surprisingly common and often fundamentally misunderstood in body work practices yet is the single most powerful thing to address to help heal pain, anxiety and trauma
Feeling is hard and complex, but trainable and through a constant, ongoing negotiation, the world of interoception can open up with skillful practice and support
Questions covered:
What is trauma?
What is dissociation?
How do we feel?
Why embodiment?
What is an emotion?
This interview is part of the Somatic Movement Summit, a free online event where you can discover fluid motion as medicine for your body and mind. For more information, please visit somaticmovementsummit.com. This recording is a copyright of The Shift Network. All rights reserved.
